Catholic school strike: Out-of-office message out of order

Teachers in almost 300 Queensland Catholic schools considering going on strike as soon as next month have lost a legal battle to set an out-of-office email reply to inform people of their industrial action.

Ballot papers will be sent to 9601 teachers from 288 schools on Friday, asking them to vote on whether to take industrial action including day-long work stoppages, a ban on "non-contact time" duties and staff meetings, and delays in responding to emails.

Brisbane's All Hallow's school is one of 242 Catholic schools affected by Thursday's strike action. Photo: Michelle Smith

It was that email action – in particular, the setting of out-of-office messages informing people of the industrial action – the Catholic school employers baulked at.

They successfully appealed to the Fair Work Commission to have the phrase "will include an 'out of office' message on their email referring to protected industrial action as the reason for the delay in responding" removed from its ballot question.

During a FWC hearing in Brisbane last month, commissioner Susan Booth determined such an out-of-office message would not be a valid industrial action.

"There is a recognition that an electronic communication from the employees to students, parents and colleagues is part of the work of a teacher occurring within their hours of duty," she said.

Advertisement

"That is, responding to emails is work performed by an employee.

"The action they are taking is non-responding to emails. However the out of office message, such a message is not work performed by an employee."

Ms Booth said the employees' work, in this instance, was answering emails.

"The proposed action that results in the restriction, limitation or delay in the performance of the duties is the non-responding to the emails," she said.

"The out of office message is an explanation of that non-response to the email. It is therefore not industrial action."

"Given our conclusion that the commissioner correctly excised action that did not fall within the definition of industrial action and could not be protected industrial action we dismiss the appeal," he said.

Independent Education Union Queensland secretary Terry Burke said teachers merely wanted to assure parents they were not being ignored.

"We were a bit surprised that the employers objected to this," he said.

"We thought it was just clarifying the matter (to parents), that there'd be no latter day surprises that this is what the staff would do.

"The Catholic (employers) in this campaign have painstakingly challenged everything in terms of the way we conduct the bans."

Queensland Catholic Education Commission executive director Lee-Anne Perry said the proposed email messages would have been inappropriate and welcomed the decision to prevent them.

"The Fair Work Commission has agreed that these types of automated messages would not constitute valid industrial action," she said.

"It is not accurate to suggest Catholic employers objected to the emails in an effort to prevent any attention being placed on the union's industrial action.

"Our Catholic schools have been very open with parents about the various stoppages and other actions taken by some union members.

"Catholic school employers have always been willing to negotiate in good faith and have moved on several key claims made by the union, but, disappointingly, it seems the union is not prepared to move to help resolve the dispute."

Mr Burke said the Fair Work Commission had indicated it was in the public interest for the union to appeal the email decision, as it was an untested part of the Fair Work Act.

"That clearly flags that they think this has wider interpretative significance in terms of what constitutes protected action," he said.

"We'll have a look at that, but at the moment our minds are more on promulgating the campaign rather than having political arguments about what the act may or may not mean."

The schools have offered a wage increase of 2.5 per cent or $23.90 per week, whichever was greater, along with a commitment to match Education Queensland wage increases if they were higher.

"As union members vote on the continuation of industrial action in coming weeks, I'd ask them to look at the fair and responsible offer made by Catholic employers," Dr Perry said.

"By working together, schools and staff can achieve the best possible outcome for all affected parties – students, parents and staff."

Mr Burke said if members voted in favour of industrial action, it could occur as soon as mid-February.